Roseburg resumes operations for 145 employees at Weed facility after Mill Fire
Roseburg Forest Products began full operations of its veneer manufacturing plant Wednesday, returning 145 team members to full schedules after implementing new safety procedures and keeping city and county leaders informed since the Sept. 2 Mill Fire.
Roseburg updated the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services, the Siskiyou County Planning Department and Siskiyou County Sheriff Department fire investigators about its plans to safely resume operations at the Weed, Ca., facility.
“We carefully considered the concerns our neighbors, regulators, investigators and our community may have had about the resumption of full operations,” said Pete Hillan, spokesperson for Roseburg Forest Products. “We’ve trained our team members, tested the equipment and updated our operational protocols so that we are confident in safely resuming operations.”
CalFire and the Siskiyou County Sheriff have not issued the results of their investigations into the cause of the Mill Fire. In the interim, Roseburg has reviewed and updated its procedures to make sure the company continues to protect team members and the community by:
- Removing the mill’s “ash mixer” that a manufacturer designed to mix and cool the mill’s ash with water.
- Installing a replacement mixer to mix the ash with water and cool the ash.
- Updating how the mill produces, stores and removes its ash from the new ash mixer.
- Updating emergency response processes.
- Conducting team member trainings for handling ash with the replacement ash mixer and a new storage facility.
Throughout the more than two months since the Sept. 2 Mill Fire, plant staff continued to work full-time, focusing on overall safety updates, including the installation of new ash-handling equipment; and, conducting routine maintenance and planned capital improvements.
“We are grateful for the support of our neighbors, City of Weed leadership and our Siskiyou County partners,” Hillan said. “We appreciate the dedication of our team members in preparing for the safe resumption of operations.”